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Mercury 2 (medium) vs GPT 5.3 Chat (default)

GPT 5.3 Chat (default) leads on average score with 6.7 vs 6.6. Mercury 2 (medium) has the lower benchmark cost at $0.121 vs $0.533. Mercury 2 (medium) is faster at 4.40s vs 6.31s, with pass rates of 53.6% vs 62.3%.

Last updated at: 2026-10-15

Compared models

Rank
#212
Total Output Tokens
96,943
Response Time (avg)
4.40s
Total Cost
$0.121
Rank
#204
Total Output Tokens
28,179
Response Time (avg)
6.31s
Total Cost
$0.533
Recommended model Mercury 2 (medium)

Its score stays close to the best score here (6.6 vs 6.7), while costing about 4.4x less than GPT 5.3 Chat (default).

Detailed comparison

Metric Mercury 2 Mercury 2 medium Release: 2026-02-24 GPT 5.3 Chat GPT 5.3 Chat default Release: 2026-03-03
Score 6.6 6.7
Rank #212 #204
Reliability 10.0 10.0
Consistency 8.1 8.6
Attempts 69/69 69/69
Tests Correct
Attempt pass rate 53.6% 62.3%
Flaky tests 5 4
Total Runs 69 69
Cost per result 1.201 4.097
Total Cost $0.121 $0.533
Input Price $0.250 / 1M $1.750 / 1M
Output Price $0.750 / 1M $14.000 / 1M
Cache Read Price $0.025 / 1M N/A
Cache Write Price N/A N/A
Total Input Tokens 189,300 78,846
Output Tokens 10,854 7,635
Reasoning Tokens 86,089 20,544
Response Time (avg) 4.40s 6.31s
Response Time (max) 34.92s 18.33s
Response Time (total) 96.81s 138.73s
Parameters ~100B ~400B total (~17B active)
Availability Closed Closed

Cache prices apply to input tokens. Reads reuse cached prompts; writes store them and can cost extra. Output tokens use the output price.

Model generation showcase

Hamster playing table tennis

Prompt: Create a detailed SVG illustration of a hamster playing table tennis.

#212 Mercury 2

medium
Cost
$0.002
Time
2.1s
Tokens
1,702 tok

#204 GPT 5.3 Chat

default
Cost
$0.008
Time
8.1s
Tokens
634 tok

Top Models by Score

Score vs Total Cost

Response Time (avg)

Score vs Response Time (avg)

Total Output Tokens

Score vs Total Output Tokens

Category Breakdown

Coding Score Consistency Attempt pass rate Flaky tests Tests Correct Response Time (avg) Input Tokens Output Tokens Reasoning Tokens
Mercury 2 8.2 7.7 77.8% 1 2.04s 7,065 296 11,328
GPT 5.3 Chat 5.6 4.7 55.6% 2 10.52s 7,302 808 5,824

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